The 9
propositions of Scientific Idealism
Copyright 2016 Graham Berrisford.
One of about 300 papers at http://avancier.website. Last updated
26/03/2017 23:17
The headings below are the 9 propositions of scientific idealisation.
Contents
Preface
(repeated in other papers)
1
Describers create and use descriptions of realities that they observe and
envisage
2
Descriptions are created and used by describers to idealise realities
3
Realities may be observed and envisaged by describers and embody descriptions
4
Describers are also realities
5
Descriptions are also realities
6
Ideas are encoded in descriptions
7
Mental and verbal models are intertwined descriptions
8
The qualities of realities exist only in descriptions
Footnote:
Descriptions created by accident of cause and effect
A system can be characterised as parts that interact in regular, repeated or repeatable behaviors.
It can exist in two forms - a concrete system realises (or instantiates) an abstraction system description (or type).
|
|
The Solar System |
A Beethoven symphony |
|
Abstract system description |
The “Solar System” as described by an astronomer |
A musical score as written by Beethoven |
|
Concrete system realisation |
Several large physical bodies orbiting the sun |
Performances that instantiate the symphony in physical
sound waves |
Which begs a more general question: how are describers, descriptions and realities related?
Realist philosophers say realities have descriptions, which describers can discover.
Idealist philosophers say describers create descriptions to help them deal with realities.
Our scientific idealism separates describers, descriptions and described realities.
|
Scientific Idealism Triangle |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and envisage> Realities |
Most realities are more complex and multi-faceted than any description of them.
And a particular reality may not exactly fit a description applied to it.
Outside of mathematics and computing, fuzzy matching of realities to descriptions is normal.
A describer is an entity able to observe
and envisage realities - past, present or future.
And able to create, recall and use
descriptions of realities.
These
abilities are part of the describer’s intelligence.
|
Scientific idealism |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe
and envisage> Realities |
A town map is distinct from the town it represents.
Selected properties of the town are encoded in symbols on the map.
Descriptions are distinct from the realities they describe.
A description is anything that
encodes ideas or properties abstracted from realities.
Descriptions include mental, documented and other kinds of model.
|
Scientific idealism |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and envisage> Realities |
Descriptions are abstractions, they can be fuzzy and contradictory in places.
However, realities can be tested for conformance to a description.
And if those tests are passed, then the description is good enough
Descriptions may be encoded a
communicable form (such as speech or writing) and shared.
Here, are main interest is abstract system descriptions encoded in written words.
Anything and everything that a describer can describe is a reality.
Realities include entities, such
as a wolf, a pack of wolves, a rose bush, a field, a planet, a solar system, a
telephone company, and a molecule.
Also events and
processes, such as tennis matches and symphony performances.
|
Scientific idealism |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe
and envisage> Realities |
Describers cannot fully understand
reality directly; they can only understand their descriptions of realities.
The describe realities in terms of
discrete entities and events
Realities can be tested as manifesting those entity and events types.
A describer is a reality, and can be described by a describer.
(Self-describing entities are discussed in other papers.)
|
Scientific idealism |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and envisage> Describers |
A map of a town isn’t a real town, but it is a real thing in its own right.
Any description can be viewed as a reality, and described by a describer.
|
Scientific idealism |
|
Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and envisage> Descriptions |
Recursive description of description is commonplace in the specification of complex systems.
Software systems are often described at three levels of abstraction, called: physical, logical and conceptual description.
Others kinds of abstraction are discussed in other papers.
A mental model is a description (be it simple or complex) encoded in a mind about a reality.
All intelligent animals create and use their mental models to help them deal with reality and predict future events.
|
Animal intelligence |
|
Mental models <form and recall> <idealise biologically> Animals <observe and predict> Realities |
The trouble is that mental models
are flexible, fuzzy, fragile and contradictory in places.
To improve our mental models, we
talk to each other about them.
And to stabilise our mental
models, we write them down.
|
Human intelligence |
|
Documented models <write and read> <idealise in text> People <observe and envisage> Realities |
Scientific idealism regards all descriptions (mental, documented and other) as encodings of ideas.
|
Human intelligence |
|
Mental, documented and other models <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and envisage > Realities |
We translate mental models into and out of verbal forms, both spoken and written.
We write – which involves translating mental models into documented models.
We read – which involves translating documented models into mental models.
|
Human intelligence |
|
Mental & documented models <create and use> <can be translated from> Humans <observe and envisage> Mental
& documented models |
In other words, people decode ideas from mental models and encode them in documented models.
And do the reverse, they decode ideas from documented models and encode them in mental models.
Describers create and use universal quality types that generalise from particular things
Further, a universal must be encoded in at least one description, else it does not exist.
A quality cannot be measured until a particular thing until the quality type has been described.
|
Scientific idealism in general |
|
Universals or Quality types <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe and
envisage> Particulars |
To typify things is to describe one thing – one member of a set of similar things.
Less obviously, the converse is true; to describe one thing is to typify it.
Once you have described one thing, there is no limited to the number of similar things that may be observed or envisaged.
This applies to the description of a single true/false value, of which there can be many instances.
It applies equally well to the very large and complex specification of a Boeing 747, of which there can be many instances.
A description cannot constrain the number of realities that might instantiate it.
As soon as you describe what you consider to be a unique thing, you can immediately envisage a second instance of that type.
E.g. scientists now talk of parallel universes.
Proposition 2 says scientific idealism is about descriptions created by describers.
A reader has suggested that a crater on a moon idealises some features of the asteroid that caused it.
Yes, but the crater was caused by accident and the triangle below contains no describer.
|
Effects of causes |
|
Craters <hold> <are effects caused by> Moons <are struck by> Asteroids |
It is possible to redraw the triangle so it gets half way towards meeting proposition 2.
This version says astronomers study craters and can envisage the asteroids that caused them.
|
Interpreting effects of
cause |
|
Craters <study> <idealise> Astronomers <envisage> Asteroids |
But still, cases
of this kind lie outside the mainstream of scientific idealism and its
application in system theory.
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